PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP Date: Tuesday 11 February 2025 Location: Hotel Grand Chancellor, Brisbane Capacity for the workshop is limited - please register early to secure your place Once Workshops are sold out we will put a waiting list in place
WORKSHOP 2 (REEF): THE ECONOMICS OF IMPROVING MANAGEMENT OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
Convenor: John Rolfe , CQUniversity Time: 9:00AM - 5:00PM
Overview: The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia is the focus of substantial effort to improve protection and resilience, including from water quality impacts from agriculture and other land uses. On the marine side the challenges include identifying where conservation, restoration and other protection measures should be focused, given the scale of the system and the complexity of pressures on it. On the terrestrial side the challenges are largely around identifying cost-effective solutions to water quality issues from agricultural activities that will be supported by stakeholders.
The 2022 Scientific Consensus Statement that was released in August 2024 identified major gaps in knowledge around the economics of practice adoption, the potential for co-benefits from improved practices to be incorporated into mechanism design, and improving adoption rates through better understanding of social drivers. Economic analysis can provide insights into each of these factors.
For this workshop the potential insights from economics analysis are organized in four sections: • Costing and prioritizing potential water quality solutions • Getting economics into mechanism design • Factors driving adoption • Assessing future issues. The target audience for this workshop are policy makers, researchers and stakeholders in the Great Barrier Reef policy space.
Format: The format of the workshop will be four panel sessions with approximately four speakers each. Each speaker will give a 15 - 20 minute presentation followed by moderated Q&A for 20 minutes and then open Q&A for 30 minutes. The different sessions will be chaired by different stakeholders. Session 1: Costing and prioritizing potential water quality improvements Session 2: Getting economics into mechanism design Session 3: Factors driving Landholder adoption Session 4. Assessing future options